African dental leaders, meeting in Cape Town on 30 and 31 October, have deplored the omission of references to oral health and oral diseases in just-issued draft WHO Work Programme 2014-2019.

In a strongly-worded statement, adopted at the end of the two-day African Summit on Oral Health, they stress the contradiction between the current draft and WHO’s previous assertions of the crucial role of oral health plays in general health as well as the common risk factor approach provided for in the United Nations Political Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases.